Late Goal Lifts Capitals Over Rangers in Opener

The Capitals’ Joel Ward sent a goal past the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist (30) with just over one second left in the third period in Game 1.CreditFrank Franklin Ii/Associated Press

By Pat Pickens

April 30, 2015

The Rangers scored the tying goal with less than five minutes remaining and seemed destined for overtime Thursday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Washington Capitals.

The clock was winding down when Joel Ward suddenly found himself alone to the left of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Ward took a pass from Alex Ovechkin and whipped the puck past him with 1.3 seconds remaining. The crowd at Madison Square Garden was stunned as the Capitals celebrated.

“Right now, it’s tough, but then you regroup; you move on,” said Lundqvist, who made 27 saves. “It’s the first of four; it’s their win. The way we battled back in this game, obviously we were looking for a different result. We will regroup and come back.”

It was the Rangers’ first Game 1 loss on home ice since the 1996 Eastern Conference quarterfinals against Montreal. Game 2 is Saturday afternoon at the Garden.

“I didn’t know how much time was left, to be honest,” Ward said. “I knew I was in front, and I was just screaming, and he made an unbelievable pass across his body, and I just took a hard whack at it, and it went in. Sure enough, I beat the clock.”

Washington had taken a 1-0 lead at 18:13 of the first period after Dominic Moore was sent to the box on a questionable holding penalty. Flying down the left wing, Ovechkin, who led the N.H.L. with 53 goals, his sixth 50-goal season, attacked the defending Dan Boyle and wired a snap shot past Lundqvist.

Jesper Fast, filling in for Martin St. Louis on the third line, knotted the score, redirecting Kevin Hayes’s spinning shot past Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby with just 4:39 left.

“We were able to get a big goal by Quickie there,” St. Louis said, referring to Fast. “I felt really confident taking that game into overtime. It just didn’t happen.”

Lundqvist said the Rangers had “lost our focus a little bit.”

Playing most of its time on the ice against Ovechkin’s line, the Rangers’ makeshift top line of Rick Nash, Derick Brassard and St. Louis managed 10 shots on goal — four of which came in the first period, when the Rangers outshot Washington, 12-7.

St. Louis was moved up to the right wing after Mats Zuccarello sustained an upper-body injury in the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. St. Louis nearly scored on a point-blank try with 16:07 remaining.

Holtby, who picked up a secondary assist on Ovechkin’s goal, stopped 31 shots. He was especially sharp early, making seven of the game’s first eight stops as the Rangers tried to take control from the outset. J. T. Miller had the Rangers’ best chance, redirecting Chris Kreider’s pass wide of a vacated net.

Holtby caught a stick to the throat during a third-period skirmish with Rangers forward Tanner Glass. Holtby went down in a heap, but he stayed in the game.

“I think Holts was unstoppable today with some huge saves,” said Ovechkin, who had a game-high six shots on goal.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Overtime? Wait a Second: The Rangers Are Stunned. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe